Recipes for a Good Day

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Camp Coffee

Agrontrutta                                                                                                                        Bismarck, ND

Fly fishing camps require certain essentials. Coffee from a campfire in the morning, for example. Whether it’s at Salmon Forks Camp on the South Fork of the Flathead River in the “Bob”  or at Lyman Run in Penn’s woods, camp coffee clears the head and gets your mind right. At Rossiter Lodge we cheat and drink the brew from an electric coffee maker because we can’t be trusted with fire that early in the morning. Coffee from the Trout Shop Café in Craig, Montana is the next best thing to camp coffee.

John Gierach captured the cosmological connections of camp coffee and gave some practical tips on its making in Trout Bum. Ernest Hemmingway in Big Two-Hearted River has Nick, the story’s protagonist, trying to remember how his friend Hopkins (“Hop”, killed in WWI) made camp coffee—boiled or simmered. Nick boils it and the bitter tasting result reminds him of the right way. He ends up sweetening the black bitter brew with the syrupy dregs from a tin of apricots.

 I can’t channel John Gierach and the closest I’ll ever get to Papa’s spirit is Hemmingway Flats on the Missouri River. I don’t even have my own camp coffee recipe. So, here’s one I stole from Tom Perini’s Texas Cowboy cookbook. It’s actually from Richard Bolt, a cook at the Pitchfork ranch near Guthrie, Texas.

The night before: Fill coffee pot (1 gallon) with water to one-inch below the spout. Add 1 to 1 and ½ cups coffee grounds (depending on strength). Let sit overnight.

In the morning: Put over a low fire and bring to a simmer. Take the pot off the flame and dash it with cold water (settles the grounds). Enjoy.